


A Worthy Decoration

by Meilan_Firaga



Series: 25 Days of Christmas Fics - 2015 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 16:05:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5340110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint goes to step out of the elevator and discovers a strange world of festive cheer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Worthy Decoration

**Author's Note:**

> Following this set of prompts (http://yourfavoritescoundrel.tumblr.com/post/104198583046/a-friend-was-looking-for-a-holiday-themed-prompt) my goal is to post a new fic every day for the 2015 holiday season. 
> 
> The first prompt is "decorating". Obviously, Darcy is going to make sure Avengers Tower is dressed to the nines for the winter holidays. :) This is actually my first posted MCU fic, and I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. Please excuse any weird typos. I typed this up while partaking in a decent amount of high proof alcohol, and it is completely un-betad.
> 
> Because I am a fluffy and sentimental creature during the holiday season, no one is dead and everybody lives happily in Avengers Tower for the duration of this fic.

With one foot still in the elevator and the other hovering an inch above the carpet of Avengers Tower’s communal floor, Clint Barton was torn. On the one hand, the sight before him inspired an immediate urge to turn and go right back the way he came. On the other, he really wanted the a piece of one of the many leftover Thanksgiving pies in the communal kitchen. Maybe a piece of each. Darcy had baked every imaginable variety, and her baked goods were all spectacular. With the memory of delicious pastry pushing its way to the forefront of his mind, Clint made a decision and stepped cautiously out of the elevator, casting a wary eye around the once familiar hallway.

When Clint had left the communal floor not twelve hours before after the Avengers’ belated Thanksgiving gathering the only vaguely seasonal items in sight were a cornucopia in the middle of the massive dining table and numerous hand turkeys (mostly made by Thor once he’d been shown the childish novelty--though there had been one massive hand that Darcy had somehow convinced Hulk to make) pasted across the walls. All of those were gone, and in their place was… Christmas. The massive open floor plan of kitchen, dining area, and living room had been converted into a North Pole scene straight out of one of the Lifetime holiday movies Clint’s wife loved watching so much. An enormous tree stood in the very middle of it all, completely bare but for a knitted tree skirt. Squinting carefully, he saw that the skirt’s pattern was not--as it first seemed--a normal cluster of snowflakes on a blue background. Instead of normal snowflakes with a random pattern, each one boasted a symbol representative of one of the Avengers.

“Stop staring and join the party, bird boy!”

Clint did not jump at the sound of Darcy’s voice coming from behind the tree he would have sworn hid no one. He merely flinched at the terrible nickname tacked to the end of her comment.

Shut up.

“What exactly is going on here, Lewis?” he asked, covering his momentary not-surprise with a slight cough as he stepped around the tree. He found Darcy on a step ladder, meticulously shoving branches to and fro to make the tree look as full as possible. The intern stopped and stared down at him, the look on her face expressing little more than complete exasperation.

“It’s December first, Clint.” By the tone of her voice, there was only going to be one correct response. Hawkeye was pretty sure he didn’t have it.

“And that means… what, exactly?”

Rolling her eyes, Darcy turned back to the tree. “Don’t try that oblivious crap with me, mister,” she sniped. “You’ve got three kids. You know the first means that Christmas has officially begun.”

“My family is classified information, Lewis.”

“Classified, schmlassified. Why else would you be the one of the reasons we couldn’t do Avengers Thanksgiving on actual Thanksgiving?” She stretched up on her toes, her entire upper body disappearing into the tree. “And I’ve had Fury’s personal personnel files for ages.”

Closing his eyes, Clint pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” With a sigh, he glanced up at the younger woman. “Can I have pie before I start helping?”

“Of course!” her voice was slightly muffled, and a rain of pine needles followed her acquiescence. “But after that you’re helping me get the lights on this thing.”

Two hours, six slices of pie (two each of pumpkin, razzleberry, and tollhouse), and a lot of swearing later, they plugged in the multi colored fairy lights just in time for the elevator to open and reveal Darcy’s holiday wonderland to the rest of the Tower’s residents.

“It’s December first!” Darcy shouted into their slack-jawed faces. “It’s Christmas, motherfuckers! Now, get your butts in here, because we’re trimming this tree like a family.”

By midnight that night, the Avengers and those closest to them were sprawled across the living room--most sleeping--while How The Grinch Stole Christmas played on the enormous television. The top of the tree was bedecked with something large, golden, and glowing that Thor had actually gone all the way to Asgard to get. Scattered through the branches were a mish mash of things Clint had never even considered for ornaments. The most normal were Sam’s two garlands (one of popcorn strung on thread and one made of links of paper) that wrapped the entire tree and were made by Steve and Bucky. The two soldiers also produced a handful of crumbling, handmade items from somewhere that he suspected had been on their tree back in the 1940s. Jane and Bruce had hung tiny bits of cast off lab equipment, giggling between them about the chemical reactions they’d used to get certain colors in liquid-filled files. Aside from the tree topper, Thor scattered some sort of silken thread that glimmered of its own accord. Natasha hung five pairs of beaten and worn ballet slippers, each with Cyrillic scribbled across the soles, and one tiny glass piece in the shape of a cathedral dome that looked to be at least twenty years old.

Tony, of course, found a way to hang his favorite thing: himself. As though he’d been anticipating a decorating party, he disappeared and returned moments with later with one of his robots trailing behind him. It was carrying a box of ornament frames full of pictures of each one of them--posing, of course, with Stark himself. Despite their narcissism, though, the ornaments were of spectacular quality. Each picture was flattering, and they were exquisitely made. In the box beneath the frames was a complete set of Avengers action figures already conveniently arranged on hooks for hanging. The near-thoughtfulness of Tony’s ornaments almost completely erased the confusion and questions that everyone had about the strange, mundane items that Vision had hung. He’d included everything from a corkscrew to a single, sad looking rubber duck. No one was sure what Scott had added since he’d done all of his decorating in the suit. Hill had hung what she swore were inoperable bullets. Everyone had been very careful not to let her hang them near the lights.

The twins, who had no ornaments of their own, spent the evening with Darcy in the kitchen cutting salt dough ornaments out with an astounding variety of cookie cutters. No one knew where the intern had acquired cookie cutters in the shape of some of their foes, but they had to admit that when they were covered in glitter--and what may have been Scott-shrunk handcuffs--they looked fabulous on the tree. Darcy had also cut out one large rectangle for each of them, and they’d all watched in awe as Pietro painted their portraits on them in seconds.

Looking around him, Clint couldn’t help but smile at the comfort of it all. Glancing over at the tree, he marveled for a moment at the way it gleamed in the darkness of the room. Here was a representation of every one of them: their passions, memories, and love for one another. Sure, it was over twenty days out from the holiday. Of course it was ridiculous and more than a little over the top. It was a lot of things, but he was starting to think that maybe it was exactly what he needed his family to see of his life away from the farm. They needed to know that it wasn’t always danger and violence and… was that Mjolnir hanging off the side of the tree? Shaking his head to be sure that it wasn’t Darcy’s laced hot cocoa playing tricks on him, Clint squinted. It was, indeed, Thor’s hammer of legend dangling from one of the tree branches as if it weighed no more than a feather.

His kids definitely needed to see this. The damn tree was  _worthy._

 

 

 


End file.
